Methods for manufacturing crimped connections are known and have been in use for a long time. EP 1 351 349 A1 discloses a crimping station, which comprises a crimping press with a press part that can be moved in a vertical direction (so-called “crimping ram”), by means of which a cable tail of a cable can be connected with a crimp contact. The crimping station further includes a gripper, which supplies the cable to the crimping press by swiveling about a vertical swivel axis. During the crimping process, the supplied cable end is lowered by means of a positioning unit together with the crimping press. In an uppermost position of the movable press part (starting position), the positioning unit or a stop surface of a ram of the positioning unit facing the cable gripper is spaced from the cable gripper, ensuring that the cable remains stationary at the beginning of the crimping process. This crimping station has a special actuator, by means of which it is possible to easily adjust the spacing to different crimps, cable diameters or crimping tool configurations. In practice, it has been shown that a precise vertical positioning of the cable end in the crimping press during the crimping process greatly affects the crimp quality. Since the ram of the positioning unit is rigidly connected to the crimping press, problems can occur, especially with fast crimping processes. For example, abrupt impinging of the positioning unit on the cable gripper can lead to undesirable vibrations in the cable and to large mechanical stresses on the elements involved.
WO 2011/004272 A1 relates to a crimping station with which the lowering movement of a positioning unit can be controlled. The positioning unit consists of a tubular lowering element and a movably mounted ram therein. The cable gripper is first moved vertically to an intermediate position by means of the lowering member moving vertically down. This first lowering movement is predetermined by a control cam with a beveled edge mounted on the slide of the crimping press. The further lowering movement from the intermediate position to the end position is then carried out through the internal ram overtaking the lowering member, which ram is rigidly attached to the movable press part. This results in an undesirable excess pressure applied to the cable end at the end of the crimping process. Another disadvantage of this arrangement is that the field of application for the respective crimping station is limited and not flexible. For example, when changing to different cables, crimp connections or crimping tools, expensive re-fitting processes are necessary, in which the component with the control cam have to be removed and replaced with another component.